I am a newbie to Linux.

I am awestruck with the amount of packages in Linux. But most of them are painstakingly command line.

Like, ProFtp, GNU Plot etc. I am just wondeing why the developers are not interested in framing a GUI along with it? It would make a lot more easier for newbies right?

well i don't know why they are not interested in GUI,
but it don't bother me, cause the CLI is better
i've never had a problem with having to type :
proftpd

and regardless, alot of the times you can find a frontend for apps that are CLI based ...
such as gproftpd
i think you can use webmin to config proftpd also ..

so don't always assume that a program is completely CLI based just because the
developer doesn't release one ...
pull out your search engine and find a GUI (again, if one exists) ..

I think that it is because the developers cant be bothered.

Another reason is that Linux users are generally much more computer literate than any other OS. That is however changing so this is an important issue.

I agree that it would be nice if you had the option of using the GUI or the Command line.

but as DrOzz says there is a lot of third party GUIs for programs. For example you can get a GUI for the NVIDIA drivers which makes things alot easier.

The trouble is finding the GUI though.

Once you're used to it, the CLI rocks... you cut away with the bloat of a gui and can get right to the heart of the matter by hand editing config files. I often find that guis don't work how they're meant to, or are non-intuitive. You can work a lot more quickly and you learn a lot more doing things by hand.

Download Python and Tkinter and make some gui's, it's a good way to learn linux and how things work. Start with something like XMMS or MPlayer and work ur way up

personally i love all the CLI based apps. i don't like to have to go clink click to change the volume, or look at the firewall, when those programs can easily be run on the CLI and save me CPU resources, and free up desktop space,

as for developers not making some of there programs with a GUI, i think its because people are more likely to have a CLI then GUI, if they make the program for the CLI then those programs can work on almost every linux/unix out there, if its for the GUI then its either for only people with GTK (or whatever toolkits they have), and X libs ....... or some other windowing system all together and might not even work

Simple reason for developers to prefer CLI over GUI: GUI means more work to do, if you don't have a thing like VB, and then you're stuck in the MS prison.

id like to add... that server stuff, does not need X running. That is the devolpers stand-point as would mine be.. If you are going to run a server.. you do not need any extra overhead that is not needed.

The Reason Not all applications have Frontends guilt into them, is not all Unix / Linux Box's have X installed.

I have an old pentium2 box that i use as a router / proxy / firewall / sever.
it doesnt have enough disk space to install X,
and because GUI's arent needed, the programs still work.

just cos its a server dont mean i dont need to run other porgrams on it.

While researching an unrelated issue, I bumped into a useful bit of info regarding the use of CLI as opposed to GUI:
http://library.n0i.net/linux-unix/ar...g/ch11s04.html

The pages before and after this one give additional info.

yeah.......

CLI programs can be combined, GUI's cant.

i frequently use commands like

rpm -Uvh `find /mnt | grep package`

using a gui, i coundld do that

You can try Webmin. It makes it easier for a newbie to configure many popular network services. Another benefit is that it is web-based, so you have the option of configuring your system remotely.